LOS ANGELES -- Booking Holdings aims to use artificial
intelligence (AI) and its massive amount of customer data to create a more personalized
service, CEO Glenn Fogel told attendees at the Phocuswright Conference here.
Fogel said Booking Holdings, parent of the Booking.com and
Priceline.com brands, plans to overhaul its search and sorting function, with
the goal of delivering more relevant, customized results.
"We have 142 million photos, and we're using visual AI
that can come up with how to associate what you've liked in the past with what
you'd like to do in the future," he said.
The goal is to create a "holistic super-system"
that leverages Booking Holdings' customer data, AI capabilities and other
resources.
According to Fogel, Booking's vast size gives it an
advantage.
"One of the things that matters with AI is that you
need a lot of data to play with," he said. "We're the biggest player
on the block, so we have more data. You also need capital, because you need to
hire data scientists and AI experts. So I do think we have the advantage, but
that doesn't mean we'll win. We need to make sure that we come up with ways to
do this faster than anyone else does."